Currently, I serve as J. Roy Davis Family Chair of Theology and History at Union Presbyterian Seminary on the Charlotte campus. With over twenty years of experience in higher education, ministry, and social justice advocacy, I am an educator, author, and institutional leader who values collaboration, integrity, pluralism, reciprocity, and mutual respect. My leadership in higher education, church settings, advocacy groups, community organizations, and ecumenical and interfaith movements focuses on creating a cultural shift by building consensus and communities of belonging. What motivates me as a teacher, public speaker, and minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) are moments when I witness and work with people beginning to see things in a new way, coming alive, and playing a role in creative transformation for the sake of the common good. I come alive as I collaborate with others to connect academy, church, and community for transformative social change

What motivates me as a teacher, public speaker, and minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) are moments when I witness and work with people beginning to see things in a new way, coming alive, and playing a role in creative transformation for the sake of the common good. I come alive as I collaborate with others to connect the academy, the church, and the community for transformative social change. The questions I pursue in my research on faith and public life are the ones that keep me up at night, because the most widely known or popular answers just don’t seem to go far enough to address the real issues.

Research and teaching are, for me, intertwined. My research at this time focuses on fostering a dialogue and creating a common vocabulary that bridges the disciplines of theology and economics, economic ethics, and courageous moral leadership. One of the courses that I developed for religious leaders being trained at Union Presbyterian Seminary is entitled “More than Money, Math, and Markets: Ecocentric and Theocentric Visions of a Just and Sustainable Community.” Other recent book projects examine competing concepts of freedom in the US and their connection to the culture war; the root causes of poverty and systemic solutions to poverty and wealth inequalities; and the intersection of theology, social inequalities, and disability justice. My most recent book publication is on Authentic Christian Freedom: Deconstructing the American Gospel of Liberty (Orbis 2025).

Among other awards, grants, and honors, I am grateful to have been named the J. Roy Davis Family Chair of Theology and History (2025). In addition, the Louisville Institute generously supported my research with Sabbatical Grant for Researchers (2018). I have served as the North American Research Consultant for the World Council of Churches’ Poverty, Wealth and Ecology Project (2010-2014), taught as a Fulbright Scholar (Hungary 2010), and been awarded the Wilson Wyatt Faculty Fellowship for excellence in teaching and scholarship (2010). Authentic Christian Freedom: Deconstructing the American Gospel of Liberty (Orbis 2025) was chosen as one of the Presbyterian Outlook’s top book recommendations of 2025.  The Problem of Wealth: A Christian Response to a Culture of Affluence (Orbis 2017) won the Catholic Press Association 2018 first-place award for a book related to Catholic Social Teaching. Samples of my published work can be found on Academia.edu.

More personally, I am a partner, a parent, a lover of good long runs or a leisurely walk on the beach. Thank you for taking the time to visit this website. I hope you will reach out if you would like to consult, need a speaker, or just want to be in conversation.

Contact information:

E-mail: ehinsonhasty@upsem.edu.

Snail mail: Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, Union Presbyterian Seminary, 5241 Sharon Road, Charlotte, NC 28210